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If one of your long-time friends was your target when you blitzed, would you still drill the guy?

Adrian Wilson doesn’t hesitate. No way he’s easing up on Philip Rivers.

“Absolutely not,” Wilson said, a smile crossing his face. “He knows that. He ain’t gonna let up passing the ball down the field, so, you know … it’s how it is.”

Wilson, the Cards’ safety, and Rivers, the Chargers quarterback who may be seeing Wilson up close and personal Sunday, played at North Carolina State together. Wilson came out after his junior season in 2001; Rivers was done in college after the 2003 season. But when their time overlapped, Rivers and Wilson were dorm mates, living a few doors down from each other.

Wilson never had a car growing up – didn’t want a car, in fact – so when it was time for a food run, Rivers was the ride.

“He used to take me to Dairy Queen, Bojangles, the 25-cent wing store,” Wilson said. “We did a lot of stuff together.”

Said Rivers, “There were many trips to Dairy Queen and Bojangles and stuff. He was always coming knocking on my door for a ride.”

Not that Wilson was asking. “He pretty much just told me,” Rivers added. “I’d hear that knock on the door and he’d say, ‘Let’s go,’ and I’d be like, ‘Alright, coming.’”

Rivers admitted he was a little intimidated by Wilson at first – “You couldn’t really quite read him whether he’s serious or when he’s having a good time,” Rivers said – but said Wilson was a “good buddy.”

Wilson said the two trade text messages often. These days, that includes talking about their beloved Wolfpack, who have raced out to a 4-0 start. Wilson said that gives the pair plenty to talk about. There may be more to talk about after Sunday too.

“He’s all over the place as always,” Rivers said. “He flies around out there. He and (Darnell) Dockett jump off the screen when you’re watching tape.”

Maybe A-Dubb can leverage his friendship with Rivers to get the QB to sign with Big Red once his contract runs up (supposing we haven’t found another franchise QB by then). I’m just really hoping we’re not on another Blake/McCown/King/Navarre stretch as a franchise.

The group coming to SD this week from phx, do u know what area they’ll will taigating in this Sun? I will be making the shortdrive down from the OC with about 10 people for the game and will be looking for some fellow Cards fans to tailgate with. Let me know.

Hey Darren, What is your opinion on the NFL going to 18 games??
They may need a 2nd bye week on the schedule and they may need expand the player roster. It could hurt the quality of the game with more injuries. Do you like it??? Greedy move??

Personally, while I don’t like four preseason games, I am not a fan of expanding the regular season schedule. I do have major injury concerns with such a move. That said, I don’t have any say in the matter. And if it means I keep my job long term, not going to argue.

You’ve said that you always viewed this as a “difficult” game even if the Cardinals were healthy- do you really view the 2010 Chargers the way you have previous Chargers’ teams?

Look at this team’s roster turnover- LT, Cromartie, Osgood, etc. No Vincent Jackson and no Marcus McNeil due to holdouts/suspensions. And now injuries to Louis Vasquez, Larry English, and Shawn Merriman have the 1st two of those guys Out for Sunday and the 3rd highly questionable. And Ryan Matthews is less than 100%.

Combine that with horrid special teams play by the Chargers and a traditionally slow starting team, why again should this be such a difficult game for the Cardinals?

They aren’t flying across the country for the 2nd consecutive week to play in another team’s home opener like they did in Atlanta. The game doesn’t start at 10 AM Arizona time.

The Chargers are arguably more depleted than AZ with their combined injuries/suspensions- I just don’t see why you are attempting to lower expectations so much for the Cardinals.

Is this really because this AZ team is much worse than you thought it would be? Obviously, based on the facts that I’ve outlined for you, if you don’t believe the Cardinals should win this game this week, you are not at all a believer in the 2-1 record and Whisenhunt’s repeated claims of “progress” being made by this team.

And if this is truly your opinion, then clearly you believe Seattle is a better team than AZ right now.

Why is it that, when I read your comments, they seem to be rational — except I get that vibe you are basically ripping me every time?

You can look at the Chargers that way. I see the Chargers as a team that has turned the ball over way too much, something I don’t see them doing forever. They have been bad on special teams, yes. Rivers threw for 455 yards last week and that was on the road. They have a decent running game. I have never been a huge believer in Vincent Jackson, so no, I don’t think they have some horrible drop off at that position. Merriman has been a non-factor since his knee injury, so I don’t know how much of a difference he really makes anymore. The writers I have talked to in San Diego like Mathews but aren’t sure Tolbert isn’t potentially as good. Cromartie’s teammates all but celebrated when he was run out of town.

I never said I thought the Cardinals were better than before. Whiz might have, and I am going to report such. But let me ask you this — you know, since we are being honest — do you really believe all that about the Chargers or are you setting up a straw man for your argument? I thought this was going to be difficult ever since the schedule came out in April. Nothing has changed for me. What did you think in April? Be honest.

Just as a follow up to my comment above, I guess what I’m really suggesting is that you shouldn’t try to make the Chargers out to be a “good” team right now, because clearly at 1-2 given all of their issues, they are not. Tell it like it is- if you believe this is a “difficult” game for the Cardinals, then you what you are really saying is the Cardinals just aren’t very good at all right now (which is fine to say, I just want you to be honest).

Please don’t try to convince us that if the Cardinals lose on Sunday, it’s because the Chargers are a good NFL team right now. Please don’t. If the Cardinals lose, it’s because they are simply a bad team right now. Getting beat by a team that isn’t very good makes you bad. I’m sorry, if Janikowski makes that FG, that’s exactly what we are saying after last week’s game. I’m just not going to let someone convince me that the Chargers are some force right now in the NFL that demand all kinds of respect and admiration and should be a “difficult” opponent. They are not a good team right now.

I am not trying to rip you at all. It’s never personal one bit. Here is my issue. I’ve lived in Phoenix, New York and LA during my 32 years and I can say that in cities like LA and New York, the fans and media are much, much tougher on their teams and expect so much mroe than the fans and media in Arizona. And this isn’t just about the Cardinals- it’s the same for the Suns, D-backs, ASU, etc. If you want greatness, you have to demand it.

So when I feel like the media (and I’m sorry, I still basically count you as a member of the media) is trying to steer the fans one direction- in this case, to believe that this version of the Chargers should be feared like prior versions, and therefore, we shouldn’t “expect” the Carindals to win, but rather, we should “expect” it to be a “difficult” game, I take issue. This team was in the Super Bowl less than 2 years ago, and in a lot of ways, although key members of that team are gone, the depth on the roster has been upgraded tremendously. As such, we need to expect more from this team and we need to hold coaches, players, and the front office accountable.

So to answer your question, back in April, yes, I will admit that I did expect the Chargers to be a much better team through 3 games, and hence, for this to be a “difficult” game for the Cardinals. But that’s why I don’t buy into the arguments about “difficult” and “easy” schedules. You have to let the season play out before you can determine which teams are truly “difficult” and “easy” (at least in a relative sense). With the Chargers, if you just look at their injury/suspension situation, I’m not quite sure how you can argue that not having the following players availble for this game doesn’t severly impact that team’s potential: Vincent Jackson (like him or not), Marcus McNeil, Louis Vasquez, Larry English. I agree with you on Merriman- he is not the same player whether he is hurt or not, but I will still take the hurt version over the healthy version. And I agree that Ryan Matthews looks pretty good, but he’s still a rookie and prone to mistakes LT would not make.

Bottom line, as you and Wolf pointed out in your podcast, all of the turnover on this Chargers’ team has really hurt their Special Teams more than any area of the team. The quality of depth just isn’t there. So yes, back in April, I probably underestimated the impact that personnel losses would have on the Chargers, at least early in the season, but what I’m saying today, based on 3 games so far, if you combine all of that roster turnover with the suspension/injury situation, I just don’t think it’s fair to make the Chargers out to be some team the Cardinals should not expect to beat. We can’t let the Cardinals off the hook like that- and that goes full circle to the reason I felt compelled to write you.

Just like you do with your own kids, you need to expect more to get more. Please don’t let this team off the hook with the Chargers because a loss means they are still 2-2 with a home game against the Saints. They need to go get this win in SD. It’s not that difficult an environment to play in- it won’t even be sold out, and San Diego is seriously hurting right now. Get this win to go 3-1 and at least keep pace with Seattle, or take a 1 game lead in the division.

I expect the Cardinals to take advantage of the situation with the Chargers on Sunday. We’ve seen what happens when we give this team breathing room- they let down and get blown out 41-7. Don’t give them that breathing room- just because they are 2-1 doesn’t mean they have the luxury to “concede” a “difficult” game. Quite the contrary- they are very fortunate to be 2-1 and need to play like they are 1-2 or 0-3.

Forget the chatter.
Rivers (and every other QB) knows that Wilson is very good when he’s up near the line and Wilson is below average when he’s defending against the pass.
Guess how Rivers will attack the Cardinals’ D.

hey Darren man you have been around football long enough to know that anything can happen on any given sunday. this team more than all have proven that thru out its lifetime the cards have always been the underdogs yet teams you didnt expect to beat they did wether it was the late jim hart lomax plummer or warner
one thing is true the chargers as you know are not at their best right now but neither are the cards so is a game of equals. the outcome is for us to see.

Casey-
I agree 110 percent with you. The chargers aren’t that good and the cardinals should and need to go up their and beat them badly. Rivers is real good, but the running game is lead by a rookie in mathews he ain’t bad. Totally disagree with darren with vincent jackson, he is a monster. They have no serious threats receiving other than gates. O-line isn’t that good without mcneill, average at best without him. Defensive front 7 is ok, merriman hasn’t returned to form yet, and secondary is probably below average. Special teams looks horrible early giving up already 3 returns(punt, 2 kicks). They lost LT(Big Loss), aforementioned vincent jackson(Huge Loss), Antonio Cromartie(Huge Loss) over the offseason. Cardinals should whoop these boys in their building. Another point I agree with you is we need to expect big things from this team, we went to the super bowl just 2 years ago not 20 years ago and a deep playoff run last year, we have unfortunately lost to the super bowl champions in back to back years, we have a good team here and we need to have high expectations for them and expect alot from them also.

A-Wil can cover, just because a safety gets beat 1 TIME doesn’t mean he can’t cover. Trust me, he’s great at coverage, blitzing, run support, anything you would want a safety to do and much much more. 31 other teams would love such a dominant safety. He’s all over the place lol!!!

With all the problems you noted above in your comments, how do you explain their success so far. Their record does not represent their team and the same goes for the Cardinals. They don’t have Vicent Jackson but the are currently #2 in the passing game. If you call rankings like below hurting for the Chagers, well I wouldn’t mind hurting like they are.

CARDINALS OFFENSE—OVERALL (25), RUSH (12), PASS (25)

CARDINALS DEFENSE—OVERALL (26), RUSH (31), PASS (19)

CHARGERS OFFENSE—OVERALL (1), RUSH (12), PASS (2)

CHARGERS DEFENSE—OVERALL (4), RUSH (9), PASS (6)

The problem with the Cards is you don’t know what you are going to get from game to game. Will you see that team against the Vikings last year or the one that got their heads split in ATL. Our defense is clearly the biggest disappointment and it start with the defensive front. At this time last year, our rush defense was in the top five. This year we are in the bottom five. Ask yourself what is the biggest difference in our defense from last year…Karlos Dansdy, maybe or our two new middle line-backers?!?!?

The only chance the Cards have is to keep the Chargers offense off the field. But how do you do that when their defense is pretty good too. You do that by a very well planned and executed game plan.

Do you see us improving on the defense of side anytime soon. And do you think maybe the Cards need to start looking for some help in the form of a defensive consultant. The Redskins brought in help for their offense last year after the season started and it seemed to help them out.

Completely unrelated question for you.. I will be attending the game this weekend with a few other cards fans and was wondering if you think there will be any chance of perhaps getting our jerseys signed by a few of the players prior to the game. I think the gates open 2 hours prior and we’d happily enter that early if it meant the chance to speak to some of the players and get our jerseys signed. My wife would love to get Beaston’s signature on her jersey, do you know if he will be travelling with the team Sunday?

Dre-
No way the chargers are that good! Stats are skewed this early anyways so wait another week or so. Cards D has been on the field for eternity in the first 3 games. In the 4th quarter, they were on the field for 12:19 of the 15 minutes, that’s the special teams turnovers and offense not moving the ball consistent enough. If you’re on the field forever, something’s gonna let up after too many plays.

Well their injury report is not looking too good either. (Chargers) They think it won’t matter just because its the Cardinals. That is really disrespect and If I was Whiz and his Troops I would go there and play 60 minutes of football and win and not just give the game away.

Honestly, I don’t care too much about odds and bets. The game is played on the field and the facts are the chargers aren’t as good as people think including the odds people, they just aren’t that good.